


A Competent Engineer

by aimarooney



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:55:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23692744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimarooney/pseuds/aimarooney
Summary: Your replicator isn’t working. You are setting all your food thrown at you but no engineers seem to be good enough to fix it until you get one to come to your rescue.
Relationships: Montgomery "Scotty" Scott/Reader
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

If you had food spit out at you one more time, you were really going to lose it. You had called maintenance many times. They had sent you three cadets but all of them failed to fix the problem. 

This was the tipping point for you though. It had worked in the morning, you had hoped that meant it was fixed. But when you went to get yourself a hot coffee to go with studying, you were instead met with being sprayed with the hop coffee. 

“Fuck!” You yelled as the coffee burns through your cadet jacket. You couldn’t help but kick the stupid machine. Without even thinking you stormed out of your dorm. You were done dealing with maintenance, you were going straight to engineering and you weren’t leaving until you got a competent engineer to fix your replicator. 

You practically stormed into the engineering division. “Who is in charge?” You sneered at the first person you saw. They gave you quite the surprised look, taking in your appearance and you voice. They pointed you in the direction of the supervisor. 

Your anger fueled you to march over to their supervisor without thought. “Hello.” You waited until he looks up at your, an annoyed look on his face. 

“Do you need something cadet?” He asked you in a bored tone, which only seemed to piss you off even more. 

“Yeah, I need a competent engineer to come fix my replicator. Or do you not have any of those?” You crossed your arms. 

“You need to go through maintenance for any problems.” He said going back to his papers not even looking at you anymore. 

“I have! Three times! And none of your engineers are smart enough to actually fix anything. Getting hot coffee sprayed at me is not how I want to spend my evenings!” You huffed out in frustration. 

“That sounds awful but I can’t do anything. Like I said go through maintenance.” He said.

You were about to blow your lid when someone came up behind you. “I’ll come take a look at it for ye if ye’d like”

You turned around to see who had addressed you. “Think you’ll actually be able to fix it?” You asked, still annoyed. You probably should have been nicer to the cadet who was offering to help but you couldn’t bring yourself to be. 

“Aye Lassie,” He nodded.  
You sighed, some of your anger leaving you. “That would be amazing” 

“I’m heading out early” Scotty told his supervisor who hasn’t been paying attention. He nodded to the cadet, “Alright lead the way.”

“I’m (y/n), by the way” You told him as you head to your dorm. 

“Montgomery Scott, but call me Scotty.” Scotty gave you a smile, which you returned. “So what seems to be the problem with yer replicator?” 

“Well just look at me,” you gestured at your shirt. “My replicator is spitting things out at me instead of nicely giving them to me.”

Scotty chuckled, “Well let’s see if I can fix it.”

“I don’t think I am letting you leave until it is,” You told him, only half joking. 

“Guess I should clear my schedule,” He gave you a smile as you reached your door. 

“Thank you, by the way” You finally say once he starts to look at the replicator. “I really do appreciate it.”

“No problem!” Scotty gave you a smile, “Can’t have ye think all us engineers are stupid.”

You blushed, feeling bad for how you had acted. “Sorry, I promise I am not normally such a bitch,” you muttered. 

“I wouldn’t have called ye that,” He told you, “Ye were just upset.”

“Well I do really appreciate you coming to help, and stopping me from probably saying something I would have regretted.” You told him. “I am going to change real quick.” 

You stepped into your room and changed out of your coffee stained clothes and then headed back out. You stopped and watched as Scotty got to work on your replicator. You laughed when you notice cheerios laying on the floor.

“Didn’t believe me?” You asked him.

“Well I wouldn’t be a proper engineer if I didn’t observe the problem with my own eyes, would I?” Scotty looked up at you. 

“Well none of the other 3 were brave enough to try it” You muttered.

“No wonder they didn’t get anything fixed.” Scotty huffed. He started to take off the front panel of the replicator. 

“They definitely didn’t do that either” You commented sitting at your table with your padd in hand. You had work you really needed to get done.

“What did they actually do?” He asked you with a huff, seemingly annoyed at his fellow engineers. 

“I’m not sure, they just did some stuff with the computer and showed it worked then left. Then I would go to use it and it would spit whatever I ordered out at me. 

“Well they were just masking the problem, not fixing it.” He told you. 

He worked mostly in silence as you got some work done on your padd. Every so often you would hear a curse word or two slip from his mouth. When you looked up he usually was just shaking his hand out or shaking his head. You let him work in peace, happy to know that it would probably actually be fixed this time.  
“Aha!” Scotty exclaimed at one point, having you look up. “I think that should do it!” 

“Really?” You asked excited. 

“Let’s try her out!” He started to put the panel back on. “Alright what do ye want?”

“Well I would like a hot coffee, but let’s go with something that won’t burn you. A chocolate chip muffin would be lovely”

“You don’t think I fixed it!” Scotty sounded offended. “Computer, one hot coffee”

Before either of you could react, coffee was being spit out directly at Scotty. He practically jumps back into the table with a curse. 

“Oh my god, Scotty, are you okay?” You shot up stepping over to him. 

“I’m fine, it actually wasn’t hot” He muttered, more embarrassed than anything. 

“Did you just break it even more?” You joked.

“No,” Scotty pouted. “It is just being temperamental.” 

“Chocolate chip muffin, please” Scotty says to the replicator. You brace yourself for the muffin, but it appears nicely on a plate where it is supposed to be. 

“You did it!” You cheered. You couldn’t help but give the engineer a small hug. He laughed at your enthusiasm but happily gave you a hug back. 

“What do you want to drink?” You asked him, wanting to try it, and give your hard worker a reward.

“Black tea, hot” Scotty smiled at your offer. 

“Really hope it is fixed then” You joked again before ordering his tea. You can’t say you didn’t brace yourself. But to your amazement you were granted a mug of tea. “You really did it.”

“Well, I told you I would.” He took the tea from you “Thank you,”

“No, thank you! You saved my life!” You told him gratefully. “Can I treat you to dinner as a thank you?” 

“That sounds lovely.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scotty tries a risky experiment and losing a dog because of it.

After that, you and Scotty had found many reasons to hang out. You two quickly became inseparable, people described you as attached at the hips. Which was pretty true. If you weren’t in class or in the gym you were probably somewhere with the scotsman. 

“Ye should have been there!” Scotty said heated. “He told the class that the range of transporting was limited to only 100 miles!”

“I mean seems kinda far,” You said, which was obviously not what Scotty wanted to hear.

“It’s not though, and it isn’t even true!” Scotty told you getting very animated as you walk to your dorm. “I could, very easily might I add, beam a grapefruit to Mars!” 

“Well why don’t you do just that?” You asked him.

“What do you mean?” 

“Beam a grapefruit there. Bring it back. Prove your professor wrong.” You told him, as if it was the most obvious answer ever. 

“Yer a genius!” Scotty exclaimed. “Oh, he also said there was no way I could do it with a life form.”

“Not happening.”

“What?” 

“No way am I letting you beam me to another planet.” You said. You loved Scotty, probably more than you should, and would do anything for him. But you had to make sure he knew this was not one of them. 

“I wasn’t going to ask!” Scotty said. There was no way he would put you in that much danger. You meant way to much to him.

“Well I am just letting you know before you got to it.” You laughed. 

The next week was Scotty working on getting a grapefruit to another planet. So far he had lost a dozen of them. But he was determined to make it work, so you continued to sit in the lab with him. You would just work on coursework while he made grapefruits disappear. 

“You know, if this fails, you could just become a magician.” You joked with Scotty after his last one went missing. 

“Ha ha, very funny.” Scotty glared at you. He was now even more determined to get one grapefruit back. If only to prove to you that he could do it. 

You laughed but went back to your padd. 

“I did it!” You are startled with Scotty’s outburst. 

“What?” 

“Look it’s back!” He points to the grapefruit in front of him. 

“Do it again! I wasn’t watching!” You suddenly gave Scotty your full attention.  
Scotty makes sure that everything is exactly the same as last time and send the grapefruit to Mars. He holds his breath but soon realizes it isn’t lost! He happily beams it back. 

“Monty! You did it!” You cheer, excited for the engineer. You practically tackle him in a hug. Scotty chuckled as he catches you in his arms. 

“Alright now just need to do this a dozen or so more times and then prove my professor’s an idiot.”

“Please don’t call him an idiot.” You sighed. 

“I’ll try not to.” Scotty told you. 

It had been a week since Scotty had his breakthrough with the grapefruit. Suddenly you feel the couch sink beside you. You look over to see Scotty sulking. 

“What’s wrong?” You asked. You knew that he had his meeting with his instructor, you hoped that it hadn’t gone poorly. 

“My instructor was barely impressed.” Scotty groaned. “I think I need to prove I can do it with a life form.”

“Are you sure you can?” You asked softly. You didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but a lifeform was a big step up. 

“Of course I am!” Scotty sat up and looked at you.

“Alright, well I am still not volunteering” You mutter. “Maybe just find like a mouse or something” 

“Great idea!” He exclaimed. 

“Mine always are.”

‘Come by the labs, asap’ You got a message from Scotty the day after your conversation. You sighed but headed over anyway. 

“What’s so important?” You asked him as you stepped into the lab. You immediately heard a dog bark. “Why do you have a dog?”

“I find him wandering around campus alone. He doesn’t have a collar or anything so I thought he would be perfect.”

“Perfect for what?” You asked, afraid you knew the answer. 

“I can transport him, and then bring him right back!” Scotty explained. 

“No.” 

“What? Why not?” Scotty looked at you confused.

“Because it’s a dog!” You said squatting down to pet the beagle.

“And a stray!” Scotty defended. “Plus if ye trust my skill, I will bring him back.” 

“You don’t know that he doesn’t have an owner,” You tried. “And you know how much I believe in you, but there are too many variables.”

Scotty sent you a glare. “Well I am going to prove you wrong.” 

You just sighed, “It’s going to be okay buddy, you’re in the best hands” You picked up the dog handing it to Scotty. 

“Thank ye” Scotty said taking the dog. “Computer begin recording, lifeform test number one, subject is a healthy, stray beagle.” 

Scotty begins to make sure everything is exactly right. You stand nervously watching the dog. You hope Scotty is right, not only for the poor dog, who is a little too clean to be a stray, but for his reputation. If this dog doesn’t make it back, it will not be good look. 

“Alright, ready to go on a trip buddy?” Scotty asked the dog. He got a bark in response and smiled. “Here we go” 

You practically hold your breath as you watch the dog disappear.

“Fuck!” Scotty shouted. “Shit, dammit” 

“What’s wrong?” You almost hated to ask.

“I can’t find the dog.” Scotty sighed. He sounded disappointed. “He’s gone.”

You immediately step over to him, rubbing his back “It’s okay. It was just a stray dog. Next time we’ll use a squirrel or something”

Scotty just nodded, “Computer stop filming” you could feel how disappointed he felt. Both your comms suddenly pinged with an urgent message. 

You had to reread the message several times. Dread filled you as you looked up at Scotty. His eyes were filled with panic.

“No way was it the same dog.” 

“Really?” Scotty snapped, “It was a clean, gorgeous beagle, the collar was missing. I literally just send Admiral Archer’s dog to god knows where. And even better, I have it on video!”

“We’ll erase the video! No one will know anything happened here!” You said starting to feel like you committed a crime, which you technically had. 

“That would be a crime. We could be kicked out of Starfleet.” Scotty said.

“Only if someone found out.” You tried.  
“No, I will admit what I did.” Scotty sighed. You nodded still rubbing his back. 

“Maybe Admiral Archer likes experiments” You offered, knowing it probably wasn’t much help. 

“Probably not when it involves him losing his priced dog” Scotty muttered. 

“I can come with you. I mean I was here too” 

“No, I am not dragging you down with me” Scotty sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graduation comes and you finally get your posting!

Scotty had managed to get into minimum trouble for the beagle. He had to do quite a lot of community service, and he was forced to do a lot of hours of handling repairs around the Academy but it could have been worse. 

You were mostly disappointed that he had given up on proving his instructor wrong. You could tell what happened had hurt his pride. You tried to assure him that discovery takes time but nothing worked, eventually you gave up trying. 

Graduation finally came and you were thrilled for your first assignment. Even with most your time spent hanging around Scotty, you still managed to make it into the top percent of your class. 

“We did it!” You cheered as you hugged Scotty tightly. 

“We did!” He chuckled pulling you close. 

“So where do you think you’ll get assigned?” You asked him. You couldn’t help the anxiety you felt at the idea of having different assignments. 

“No clue,” Scotty said. He had been concerned that the because of Archer’s dog incident that he would not be getting a good placement. 

“Well wherever it is, I hope it’s the same as mine.” 

Scotty smiles at you then, “I dinnae know what I would do on a ship without ye” 

“Probably be incredibly bored.” You chuckled. 

“Definitely.” Scotty confirmed. “Still up movies and pizza tonight?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The rest of the day went by quickly. It took almost two hours to get back to your dorm because you kept getting stopped by classmates. Once you do made it back, you start to pack up your stuff. You know that the more you got done tonight the less you had to do in the morning. You were surprised with how quickly you had everything packed. The only things you still had out were things you would still needed.

You heard a buzz at your door and smiled. Scotty was just on time. 

“You never knocked before, really don’t need to start now.” You joked as you opened the door for him. You immediately noticed his demeanor. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you see we got our assignments?” Scotty asked stepping into your dorm. You almost laughed, you had gotten so distracted trying to avoid the comm, you missed the message. 

“No!” You said quickly going to your padd. “I totally forgot!” 

Scotty laughed at that. “Well ye should look then!” You could feel his sadness. 

You quickly looked at your assignment. You were immediately grinning, excited to be stationed on the Providence. As you looked up to tell Scotty you could see the pain in his eyes. Your sat the padd down and stepped to Scotty. 

“You haven’t told me what’s wrong yet.” You said softly. 

He sighed. “My assignment. It’s on an outpost that is basically just a block of ice.” 

You knew it wasn’t going to be good. But hearing him say it broke your heart. You really hated that they were punishing him for this. And you hated even more that you weren’t on the same ship. It killed you that Scotty didn’t get a ship assignment, you knew it was what he really wanted. “I am so sorry Monty. You deserve a way better posting.” 

“Well now I am stuck on a wasteland of a planet for god-knows how long.” Scotty huffed. 

“I’ll request a change, we can be miserable together.” You offered, there was no hesitation. You had been planning to finally tell Scotty how you felt. If you had the same posting you had figured it would be a perfect time to admit to him that you had strong feelings for him. But now that plan was ruined. 

“I would never ask you to do that.”

“You don’t have to!” You told him. 

“Even if I wanted you to, there aren’t security officers, it’s an engineering post.” Scotty informed you. “So what’d you get?”

“Providence.” You told him but there was no excitement in it anymore. 

“A great ship!” Monty said excitement in his voice for you. 

“Not without you,” You couldn’t help but say. You heard a sigh from Scotty.

“I have slightly worse news as well.” Scotty added quietly. 

“What could possibly be worse?” You asked.

“I have to leave tonight.” He told you. 

“What?! What about our movie night?” You hated that he was leaving so soon. 

“I have to ask for a raincheck.” He said softly. You couldn’t stop the tears from welling. You shook your head but Scotty engulfs you in a hug. You clung to him nightly, as if your life depended on it. You buried your head in his neck, breathing in his scent. 

“I’m going to miss you like crazy (y/n)” Scotty muttered into your hair. 

“Not nearly as much as I’ll miss you” You replied, muffled into his neck. 

Scotty pulled away from you, practically having to pry you off him. He can’t help himself from gently kissing your forehead. He had had every intention of telling you of his feelings. But he didn’t feel it was fair since you wouldn’t be anywhere near each other now. 

“I have to leave now.” He said with disappointment laced in his voice. 

You hugged him again, your arms wrapped around his neck. “I promise to message you as often as I can, we can even probably do video calls.”

“Of course,” Monty gave you a smile. “Goodbye (y/n)” With that Scotty left your dorm. Tears slipped down your cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You were excited to get transferred to the Enterprise, not as excited that your first mission was a rescue. You are suddenly chasing down intruders on your ship. What do you do when you know one of the intruders?

Time passed quickly. You had been good at keeping up with Scotty, sending him messages when you had time. The problem was time was limited and over time you and Scotty talked less and less. There was a point where Scotty had just stopped answering. You were pretty sure that he felt like there wasn’t anything to tell you but it still made your heart ache. But you fell into place on your ship. 

As soon as you had heard about the enterprise you requested a transfer. You knew it was a long shot, that they would be having millions of applications but you figured it never hurt to try. You had sent Scotty a message suggesting he try too, but he didn’t answer. You had then decided that a new ship would mean a new you. Once you stepped on that ship you planned to try and move on, forget your crush on Scotty. It was overdue anyway, it had almost been 2 years since you last saw him, and probably 6 months since he last talked to you. 

You were ecstatic when you got the news that your transfer request had been approved. What you hadn’t expected was for your first mission on the ship to be an emergency rescue. You had prepared for anything, or so you thought. 

You were running through engineering, trying to cut off the intruders Hendorff was chasing. 

“Halt!” You half hear Markus beside you yell. You were frozen, Scotty standing in front of you. You watched him do a double check as soon as he recognized you. You’re body was screaming for you to go to him. But you couldn’t, he was literally an intruder on your ship. 

You kept your eyes locked on him as you silently walked him to the bridge. You couldn’t tell if you were happy to see him or not. You had literally just vowed to get over him, and here he was standing in front of you, dripping wet. 

Your eyes never left the back of Scotty’s head. You couldn’t let yourself, it had been so long since you’ve seen him. All you wanted to do was to wrap your arms around him, he was your best friend after all. 

As soon as you were on the bridge, Spock was questioning Kirk and Scotty. You were practically holding your breath when he threatened to court martial Scotty. Suddenly you realized that Scotty must have figured it out. You couldn’t help smiling slightly. But suddenly Kirk was yelling in Spock’s face and he was stumbling into you. You pushed him off you out of instinct alone. You then watch in a bit of horror as Spock attacks him. You missed Scotty glancing at you.

“I like this ship!” Scotty breaks the awkward silence as Spock leaves the bridge. You barely hold back a laugh. While Jim takes over as captain, you are preoccupied with watching Scotty. He was taking in the ship, to no surprise. 

“… I want all departments at battlestations and ready in 10 minutes.” Suddenly your attention was pulled from your thoughts. You looked to Scotty and finally made eye contact again. 

“It’s really good to see ye” Scotty said softly as you go to walk away. 

“You too Scotty.” You said quietly. “Though it might have been nicer if you hadn’t stopped talking to me in the past few months.”

“I’m so sorry.” Scotty muttered, looking down. “Can we talk?”

“I need to get to my battlestation Scotty, this is not the time” You sighed. You wished you had time but you didn’t “Later.” 

You quickly walked away. Everything happened rather quickly, but Kirk and Spock succeeded. Nero was no longer a threat, and Scotty saved the ship from being sucked into a black hole.

You had tried to find Scotty directly after everything, but it was impossible. There was way too much going on. 

‘Meet me at our favorite cafe at 10?’ You sent him that night.

‘I’ll be there’ You got back. Sleeping that night was difficult. You had no idea what Scotty would say. Honestly you have no idea what you were going to say either. You slept restlessly all night.

Morning finally came and you wished you had picked an earlier time. You fidgeted all morning. Finally you left a half hour before you needed to because you couldn’t stand your room for a minute longer. 

You ordered yourself a coffee and a muffin and found yourself a table. You were mostly just nibbling nervously on the muffin. 

“It’s like the first day we met all over again.” You heard from in front of you. You looked up at Scotty a little confused. “Once I fixed your replicator, you ordered a coffee and chocolate chip muffin.” He explained.

“Ah, yes, guess I haven’t changed.” You said with a smile at the memory. 

“Well you are here early…” Scotty teased.  
“I was restless in my room.” You told him honestly. “You are quite early yourself.”

“Pretty restless myself” 

“I owe ye an apology” Scotty started, you nodded, encouraging him to continue “I was incredibly selfish. I hated how far away we were from each other. You kept added things like ‘wish you were here’ and ‘you would have loved this’ and I loved to hear about it but I also hated it because I felt like I was holding you back. I felt like I was hindering everything you did.”

“So you just stopped talking to me?” You said hurt. 

“I thought that it would help you just forget me.” Scotty sighed. 

“Why the hell would I want to do that?” You asked him. “Scotty you were my best friend. No distance was going to change that. I just wanted to share things with you, like nothing was different. And you made it so difficult. Then you stopped answering me altogether. I transfered to the Enterprise with a promise to myself that I would use the change to finally get over you. Then you showed up dripping wet. As if to say ‘You’re not allowed to get over me.’ How is it fair, you dropped me like I meant nothing and 7 months later I am still in love with you?”

“I-” Scotty began to talk but closed his mouth, he began to open and close his mouth without saying anything. “Wait ye love me?” 

“Yes.” You sighed “I have for a long time. I just couldn’t risk our friendship. I had plans to tell you after graduation but then you told me where you would be going, it didn’t feel like the right time.”

Scotty just stares at you for a moment. “I have been in love with you basically since they day we met”

“God we’re idiots.” You couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Me the biggest one.” 

There is a bit of an awkward moment, neither of you really knew what to do with this information. You were still hurt by him ignoring you for so long. But you did understand. 

“Oh I have some other news!” Scotty says breaking the silence. “I am stationed on the Enterprise, chief engineer!”

“Really!?” You asked him excitedly. 

“Yes!” Scotty told you, “I got Archer’s beagle back!”

“No way!” 

“Ey!”

“Congratulations Scotty!” You gave him a wide smile. You were happy to be back together, being on the same ship had been your dream. 

“I know I have a lot to make up for but do ye think we could try to make us work?” Scotty asked you.  
“I like the idea of starting a relationship with a leg up.” You sent him a wink and then laughed. You spent the rest of your morning in the cafe together, catching up on everything you missed over the last few months. It felt that no time had passed. You couldn’t help how light it made you feel.


End file.
